Bangsa Johor Rejects PAS Extremism
While BERSAMA just wrapped up a substantive townhall in Johor, laying out their vision for Malaysia’s future and showcasing their tangible contributions to the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), PH has fired up its election machinery by highlighting proven federal economic achievements. BN, for its part, is rolling out its machinery on the back of solid state governance, economic progress, and racial harmony.
And PAS?
Nowhere to be found — except desperately begging UMNO for a political lifeline.
In the last state election, PAS scraped together a pathetic one seat out of 56 in Johor, and even that came with a razor-thin majority. In GE15, they won zero parliamentary seats. The message from Bangsa Johor could not be clearer: they completely reject PAS’s brand of divisive, race-and-religion politics in the southern state.
What exactly does PAS have to sell to Johoreans?
- Do they want to promise banning alcohol and gambling in Johor?
- Do they plan to impose stricter dress codes and police people’s private lifestyles?
- Are they going to turn Johor into a mini Islamic State?
- Or will they offer the usual “Semua Salah DAP” blame game and empty promises of heaven in exchange for votes?
There is simply no market for this kind of politics in Johor. Bangsa Johor rejects PAS’s authoritarian instincts — the constant desire to control what people eat, drink, wear, watch, and do in their personal lives.
This is not the politics of a modern, forward-looking state.
Rafizi can talk about JS-SEZ. BN can talk about Johor’s economic track record. PH can talk about federal-level delivery. What can PAS offer?
Their own record of poverty, drugs, crime, mat rempit culture, and social decay in the states they control? Their championship of underdevelopment, lowest GDP, lowest investments, fewest jobs, and minimal economic opportunities? Even as an opposition force, PAS is arguably the weakest, most intellectually bankrupt, and least effective in Malaysia’s political history.
Their only remaining playbook is fear-mongering: scaring people that race and religion are under threat. But that scam doesn’t work here. Bangsa Johor is highly educated, progressive, well-informed, and moderate. They are not the emotionally-driven, low-information voters of their SG4 heartlands who respond to slogans and theatrics.
In Negeri Sembilan, PH has Tok Min. In Johor, BN has Onn Hafiz. In their own strongholds, PAS has… Sanusi? A man whose greatest “achievement” seems to be marrying two wives while presiding over backward governance. Or will they send him down south to promise Johoreans they’ll “take back Singapore” the same way he fantasised about Penang?
PAS is finished before the battle has even begun.
This is the end of the Green Wave in the south — and the beginning of a strong Blue-Yellow (and progressive) wave in Johor.
